Homeless part one
I was working in my garage on a Saturday morning a couple weeks back. It was snowing pretty good and so I decided to gas up the snow blower. The snow blower was given to me and I was told it worked fine but it wasn’t. It was (foreshadowing?) a lighter-weight MTD with plastic shields. I mixed the gas pour it in the tank and start pulling. I pull and pull and pull. Nothing doing.
I assumed I over primed it or choked it too long or not enough but reasoned I needed to leave it alone for awhile and maybe things would adjust back to a point where it would start.
Fortunately, I had another fun project – sorting through the Christmas lights. I hate Christmas lights. They seem to stop working almost the instant you get them out of the package. They are always tangled upon themselves. It’s inevitably windy and cold when you put them up and take them down and something always seems to go wrong once you get them up.
I started sorting and plugging in and then I started to smell gas. I looked over at my snow blower and the gas was dripping has out of the bottom. Crap – it’s snowing outside so I don’t want to move it on the driveway and I don’t want to dump the tank out until I figure out where the leak is.
I was tired. I should have dumped the gas out and came back to the problem after some caffeine or a nap or something. I got my tool set out and worked quickly to figure out where the gas leak was and to fix it in hopes of snow blowing the six inches of snow.
I thought it would be a quick fix something like a loose or cracked hose some place. I also assumed that the manufacturers of the machine would assume that someone would want to get the plastic covers off and look at the engine at some point. This was a very incorrect assumption.
I start taking off screws to get the shields off. I get the first eight or so off and put them in an order so at to get the different sized screws back in the right holes when I reassemble. The covers weren’t budgeting even with all the screws off. The gas continues to drip – drip on my boots, my gloves, my pants, the garage floor. I determine that I am going to have to take off more screws and more parts to get the shields off. The controls in back come off, the chute that directs the snow comes off. Finally, I got screws and parts everywhere but deep down think I can reassemble.
The problem is that you can’t access any of the important parts I need access to, to fix the leak. At least I can see the leak. I got to get the bottom shield off to fix anything. I figure out I need to take the wheels off and the belt guards up front off and finally I get pretty much every part possible off and realize that I am going to have to take the frame apart to the shield off. I look again and think maybe I will have to cut the frame apart to get the shield off.
Parts and bolts are all over a big pool of gas in the bottom of my garage as the snow blows in. At this point, I figure I might as well crack the top half of the shield loose from the bottom half so I can fix the leak. I can deal with a cracked shield on my snow blower. I get the hammer out and tap tap tap to get the shield to crack. I need to tap harder, I start to hammer the snow blower to get the thing to crack. I took a two minute break reassessed the possibility of getting the shield off. I take a look at all the parts and screws and think about whether I need to stop this project now or to continue.
At this point I was very frustrated and am cursing the engineers of this product. How could you make a snow blower that the engine is completely inaccessible?
To heck with it, I am going to fix this leak I don’t care if I ever get it back together but I am going to find and fix this leak. I rear the hammer back and spare no power and bang away at the shield. Finally I get a crack going midway though it. It’s off – yes. I can see the leak – it’s dripping much slower. I take a closer look and then realize I bent the crap out the carburetor with the hammer. I start thinking that maybe it will still work and take one final screw off to see the leak. Three parts fall out one of which is a spring holding a float in place.
I chuckle to myself and realize I am never going to get the thing together and even if I did, I still wasn’t sure whether it works or not. I start gathering up the parts and pack them into my garbage one by one. I tip the blower over (it’s really light now because all there is left is a frame and a small engine) and pour the gas back into the can.
After a few days, I tried to sort out what happened. What would I have done differently this day? Should I have given in and taken it to a mechanic right away? Should I have looked up the owner’s manual online first? Was I delirious from gas fumes and the reality is the shield comes off easily? Even after it was in the garbage I was tempted to drag the parts out and reassemble it. I felt victorious in that I put that poorly designed piece of crap in its final resting place and felt defeated because I couldn’t fix a simple gas leak on a relatively simple machine.
After a week I started thinking that my experience in the garage might have been a microcosm of someone becoming homeless. It’s not like many of them go from a job and a house one day to sleeping under a bridge the next. I think many start taking out a bolt here and a bolt there trying to get the metaphorical shield off so that they can fix things up underneath. Eventually, they find themselves sleeping under a bridge and maybe realize that it was small steps. Maybe they wonder at one point along the way if they would have done something differently, they would be enjoying a different comfortable reality or in my case a clean driveway without sore back.
Tags: gas leaks, Homeless, mistake, snow blower
